The shame, anger and soul-searching that have gripped much of the U.S. Catholic church in the wake of an avalanche of sex abuse scandals this year have been felt acutely by the band of Benedictines who comprise the monastic community at St. John\u2019s Abbey here.
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\nFrom the shocking revelation in mid-April that one of the abbey\u2019s former abbots had abused two monks, to more recent disclosures against two former teachers in St. John\u2019s Prep School, accused of sexual misconduct with students in the 1980s, the abbey\u2019s bad news has been spread across Minnesota\u2019s media like dirty laundry hung in the picture window.<\/p>\n
Adding to public confusion and criticism is the fact that monks accused of abuse remain in the abbey. Many in the outside world cannot fathom how the other monks can continue to live side by side with offenders. Survivors especially do not understand why the order does not chuck the abusers out. \u201cMaybe some day they will understand,\u201d Abbot John Klassen told NCR. When Benedictine monks are professed, we take them \u201cfor better or for worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
That may be the reason the monks are allowed to stay, but it doesn\u2019t make life inside the abbey any easier. The abbey scandals illustrate the tension that many Catholics feel when they try to weigh the bishops\u2019 \u201cone strike and you\u2019re out\u201d policy alongside the church\u2019s call for forgiveness of the sinner and for efforts to reconcile the hurting community. At St. John\u2019s, abusive monks have been removed from all parish and academic duties and restricted in their social contacts, their travel and their use of any university or prep school facility where they could have unsupervised contact with students.<\/p>\n
Never in the history of the abbey have \u201cwe experienced a more acute awareness of the frailty of human nature and of the need for repentance, forgiveness, atonement and renewal,\u201d Klassen said.<\/p>\n
Over the last seven months all of the abbey\u2019s 190 plus men have suffered because of past deeds of 13 or so monks, but most have also suffered compassionately alongside them. A few monks with whom NCR met in September spoke of the \u201clow-grade depression\u201d that gripped their household last spring, and is still around. They credited a renewed and deeper prayer life for saving them in their most despondent days. Some are looking to the future with less fear and more hope.<\/p>\n
\u2018Painful, devastating\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAs painful, embarrassing and devastating as this has been, it\u2019s also making us connect much more deeply,\u201d said Br. Paul-Vincent Niebauer, associate dean of students and drama coach at St. John\u2019s Prep School. \u201cIt\u2019s never going to not be there. It will come up with every prospective novice, at the dinner table, in chapter and with your biological family,\u201d said the monk who spent 13 years as a circus ringmaster before coming under the Benedictine tent.<\/p>\n
But Niebauer believes Klassen has acted forthrightly. \u201cHe\u2019s not deflecting it or ignoring it.\u201d The abbot has handled the situation so well that Niebauer fears he may be transferred to another abbey or to Rome. In August the Conference of Major Superiors of Men elected Klassen as one of its three new board members. Klassen, 53, is beginning his third year as abbot; his four predecessors served an average of 12 years each.<\/p>\n
Besides sparking anger and anxiety, the scandals call into question the future of St. John\u2019s, which includes a university, a preparatory school, a publishing house and an ecumenical institute, each of which appears in good health.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, \u201cSt. John\u2019s is at risk,\u201d Fr. Donald Cozzens said earlier this year after ending 10 months as a visiting scholar at the Ecumenical and Cultural Institute. Its monks — like priests across the nation and abroad — are experiencing \u201cthe dark night of the spirit,\u201d said the noted author, psychologist and visiting professor at John Carroll University in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
Cozzens is right. St. John\u2019s risks a drop in enrollment, alumni loyalty and fundraising capability just as it is launching a $7 million drive to build a 60-bed guesthouse for visitors and retreatants. The guesthouse has been on the abbey\u2019s wish list since 1979.<\/p>\n
Last spring the admissions departments of the university and high school breathed easier when each met its anticipated goals. St. John\u2019s University netted 1,862 students compared with 1,860 in 2001 and its sister school, the College of St. Benedict in nearby St. [Joseph], Minn., enrolled more than 2,000. \u201cI think long term we\u2019ll be fine, but we\u2019d be foolish not to consider this may impact on the future,\u201d said Mary Milbert, dean of admissions for both colleges.<\/p>\n
Even if the three schools can draw the same numbers in the coming academic year, attracting new monks to teach in them remains crucial if St. John\u2019s is to remain a center of Benedictine spirituality and scholarship as it has for 14 decades. Currently one novice and five junior monks have joined the abbey.<\/p>\n
Fr. Columba Stewart, director of formation, has received inquiries from quite a few prospective candidates — \u201cseveral of them quite serious,\u201d he said. He regretted that two novices had left, one on the eve of his profession. The scandals \u201cplayed a role,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Newcomers know it<\/p>\n
The community has expressed its gratitude to the newcomers. \u201cThey know everything there is to know about us, yet choose to join us. Priesthood is a heroic choice now,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
The scandals have also forced the monks to re-examine their vocations. This year\u2019s renewal of vows was \u201cmuch more significant\u201d Stewart held, than in the past. A new commitment to the basis of monastic life, a \u201ccall to re-founding\u201d is emerging, he said.<\/p>\n
On a practical side, monks have considered the graying of their community, the financial and societal costs of the lawsuits that the abbey recently settled and the shortage of men to fill their shoes once they\u2019ve passed on. For years teaching monks have earned the same salary lay instructors receive in the colleges. The difference is that monks return 55 percent of their pay to the university. With fewer drawing salaries, monks may have to decide to give back less to the university, retaining more for their own care, Stewart said.<\/p>\n
The scandals have \u201cheightened these concerns and put our future development under a shadow,\u201d said Br. Bradley Jenniges, assistant treasurer in the business office.<\/p>\n
Jenniges, who cuts checks each month for the therapy costs of those abused by abbey monks as well as for ongoing therapy for the monks themselves, said that falling market prices have had a greater effect on St. John\u2019s holdings than have payouts to victims. In recent weeks the university has been paying for ads in major Minnesota dailies to bolster its image.<\/p>\n
A few months ago Jenniges wondered \u201cwhether this was the right place to be. I felt a lot of calling into question of a celibate vocation in general,\u201d he said. But his commitment to the community \u201cand what it says about trusting in Christ who has promised to be with us\u201d is solid. \u201cIt may be that additional changes in our lifestyle will be forthcoming,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I\u2019m willing to anchor into that process if my fellow monks are. I\u2019m willing to stay in this community. I\u2019m hoping others feel the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
A relative newcomer to St. John\u2019s, Fr. William Schipper, said he senses that the atmosphere in the monastery has changed. \u201cI\u2019m not oblivious to it, but I don\u2019t feel it dragging me down,\u201d said the monk who is a faculty resident in a freshman dormitory.<\/p>\n
Schipper, who teaches a course on male spirituality and sexuality said that students have been very supportive of the monks. \u201cThey don\u2019t think we\u2019re lurking around corners waiting to play with someone\u2019s genitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot of the hurt that Schipper finds inside the house happens because sexual abuse actually occurred and because \u201cit\u2019s being gone over again and again. We can\u2019t have a future because of these [news] stories. It\u2019s like an endless sentence for the community and the perpetrators.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018These men are suffering\u2019<\/p>\n
Very few monks shun those on restriction, said Fr. William Skudlarek, spokesman for the abbey and liaison with the monks on restriction — none of whom has chosen to talk to the press. Certain members feel uncomfortable with the abuser monks because \u201cthese men are suffering a lot and some people have a difficult time with suffering,\u201d Skudlarek said. \u201cI believe there\u2019s forgiveness which still needs to take place in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skudlarek told of two monks who tried to send letters of apology to their victims. In one case the victim refused the gesture, in the other the abbey\u2019s lawyers ruled against it.<\/p>\n
Last month Fr. Fran Hoefgen issued a public letter of apology to his victim.<\/p>\n
Although on restriction, Hoefgen, 52, tends the Grotto Garden that overlooks Lake Sagatagan on St. John\u2019s 2,500-acre property. An ace photographer and lover of nature, Hoefgen\u2019s work features prominently in the current issue of The Abbey Banner. Finian McDonald, 73, another monk on restriction, is also a gardener whose hobby gives him \u201cgreat pleasure both to watch it grow, taking care of it and to know that other people enjoy its changing beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schipper, who came from St. Meinrad\u2019s Abbey in Indiana four years ago, said he has seen a lot of fraternal support for the monks on restriction. \u201cThe community has shown itself to be loving in the face of something that has been horrible. Most of these monks have had 10 to 15 years to process this stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be surprised if most of them didn\u2019t have a spiritual adviser. Some are very healthy as a result of all the therapy, guidance and their willingness to be different,\u201d Schipper said. But it\u2019s difficult for victims to accept this, he noted.<\/p>\n
At the most recent renewal of vows ceremony — held since the scandal broke, each monk was asked: \u201cWhat do you seek?\u201d Niebauer recalled well his feelings and his answer: \u201cI seek the mercy of Christ and fellowship in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The monk said he realized anew that \u201cmy commitment is to this place, to these bricks and these men. It\u2019s our community and we have to own it if we want to wear this,\u201d he said, tugging on the apron-like front of his habit. \u201cAnd today I do want to wear it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Link: http:\/\/ncronline.org\/NCR_Online\/archives\/122702\/122702g.htm<\/a><\/p>\n Patricia Lefevere is a special report writer for NCR. The shame, anger and soul-searching that have gripped much of the U.S. Catholic church in the wake of an avalanche of sex abuse scandals this year have been felt acutely by the band of Benedictines who comprise the monastic community … Continue reading
\nMonks suffer with abusers in the family
\nLast in a two-part series
\nBy PATRICIA LEFEVERE
\nCollegeville, Minn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"